As we work to bring even more value to our audience, we’ve made important changes for those who receive Ad Age with our compliments. As of November 15, 2016 we will no longer be offering full digital access to AdAge.com. However, we will continue to send you our industry-leading print issues focused on providing you with what you need to know to succeed.

If you’d like to continue your unlimited access to AdAge.com, we invite you to become a paid subscriber. Get the news, insights and tools that help you stay on top of what’s next.

Editor Approved Cash for Photo of Prince William in a Bikini, Prosecutor Says

Bribes Could 'Put Them, Me, You and the Editor in Jail,' Reporter Allegedly Said

Published on November 01, 2013.

News Corp. tabloids repeatedly hacked phones and paid bribes to get stories about Britain's royal family, prosecutors said as the trial of eight key figures continued Friday.

Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World, and her husband Charlie Brooks, arrive at the Old Bailey, London's Central Criminal Court, in London, U.K., on Monday, Oct. 28, 2013 Credit: Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg

A transcript of a 2005 voice mail left by Prince Harry on his ex-special services private secretary's phone, asking for help on an essay during the prince's time at a military college, was found on a file owned by former News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman, prosecutor Andrew Edis said. A year later, Rebekah Brooks, then editor of the Sun tabloid, approved a bribe for a photo of Prince William in a bikini, Mr. Edis said.

Mr. Goodman and Ms. Brooks are among eight people on trial for a variety of charges stemming from alleged practices at News Corp. newspapers. Another voice-mail message revealed Prince William had been shot with plastic bullets when he got lost on a military training exercise in the U.K., Mr. Edis told jurors at a London criminal court.

"Goodman had kept a little file of e-mails which showed, we suggest, that what he was doing was officially sanctioned by people who were senior to him," Mr. Edis said.

Company Chairman Rupert Murdoch closed the News of the World, the country's best selling paper, in July 2011 in a bid to defuse a scandal over revelations journalists had hacked the phone of a missing teenager, Milly Dowler, who was later found murdered.

The fascination with the royal family wasn't limited to News of the World. While she was editor of the Sun, another News Corp. newspaper, Ms. Brooks approved a payment of 4,000 pounds ($6,400) for a picture of Harry's older brother, William, dressed in a bikini at a James Bond party in 2006, Mr. Edis said. The photo wasn't published.

Earlier today, Mr. Edis said another former News of the World editor, Andy Coulson, told a journalist to "do his phone" to stand up a story on a former soccer player's son.

Mr. Coulson e-mailed Ian Edmondson, a former news editor at the News of the World also on trial in the case, to instruct him to hack the phone of Calum Best, the son of former Manchester United player George Best, Mr. Edis said. The 2006 e-mail told him to "do" the phone to get more information on a story about whether Calum Best had an illegitimate child.

Ms. Brooks, 45, and Mr. Coulson, who would become an adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron, had a six-year-long affair ending in 2004 that was discovered by police, Edis told jurors yesterday.

Edis also read out e-mails showing how Mr. Coulson, 45, and Mr. Goodman, discussed payments of 1,750 pounds to a police officer for two royal family phone books in 2002 and 2003.

The directories contained contact details for members of the royal household including Queen Elizabeth's phone numbers to get in touch with her family.

"I think that we should have the book and the goodwill that goes with it," Mr. Goodman said in a 2003 e-mail to Mr. Coulson asking for a payment for the book of 1,000 pounds. "These people will not be paid in anything other than cash because if they're discovered selling stuff to us they end up on criminal charges, as could we."

In order to justify the cash payments to managing editors at the tabloid, Mr. Goodman listed a number of stories which had come directly from the books and the "turning of mobiles" including ones on William, his future wife and Harry, Mr. Edis said.

"I'm not going to put it in writing but any paper or computer trail that leads to them or their families will put them, me, you and the editor in jail," Mr. Goodman said in a 2003 e-mail to a deputy managing editor at the newspaper.

'"Why on earth say he was buying them from palace police officers if he wasn't?" Mr. Edis said. "It would be terribly, terribly stupid."

Mr. Goodman and a private investigator who worked for the News of the World, Glenn Mulcaire, were convicted for phone hacking in 2007.

Mr. Coulson was also personally involved in a "team investigation" into allegations of rumors that former Home Secretary Charles Clarke was having an affair with an aide. While the allegations were false, the paper used phone hacking to report on the story, Mr. Edis said.

The other defendants include Stuart Kuttner, the 73-year-old former managing editor of the News of the World, who is accused of phone hacking. Ms. Brooks's husband, Charlie, her former assistant Cheryl Carter, and the U.K. unit's former head of security, Mark Hanna, face charges of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

All eight have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Their lawyers will present arguments later in the trial.